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Jul 10, 2012

Why we Praise..

From the rising of thesun unto the going down of the same the LORD'Sname is to be praised .

Psalm 113:1-3

When the apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He began with; “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name.”

At the start of the prayer, He proclaimed His father the God o Heaven. Hallowed means ‘to honor as holy’. Jesus was honoring the name of God for its holiness. He began by praising Him [God]. Jesus taught His apostles that above all else, to praise God when they prayed.

When many of us pray, we give praise. But it’s something we do without much feeling or attitude of true devotion. We do it so we can get past it and move on to the real reason we are praying in the first place; Us.

We have questions, we need help, and most of all, we want something.

God wants to hear our prayers and He wants to hear our requests. After all the Bible does say:

“you have not because you ask not”

Matthew 7:7

But he requires that we put Him first in all things, even our prayers.

Imagine again that you are having an audience with God. Would you charge right up to Him as if He was your personal assistant just waiting for you to hand Him your list of demands? Of course you wouldn’t. It would be impossible to stand in the presence of God and not worship Him.

Even the angels who surround His throne room cry out “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty!”

Could we as mere humans do any less?

When I first began to pray to God I struggled with praise. Not because I didn’t mean it, but my prayers seemed so systematic and empty. I would start out the same way “Lord you are great, you are worthy, you are good, etc”.

Of course God is all of that and then some, but my praising felt so shallow to me. I was throwing out whatever positive sounding word I could think of so I wouldn’t feel guilty when it came to the part of my prayer when I asked for something.

But praise should be heartfelt, it should be sincere and meaningful. So I made it a point to do nothing but praise when I prayed. I did this for about two weeks. I didn’t ask for anything, I just focused on Him and praised. Now I spend more time praising and thanking than I do asking.

But why should we praise? It’s not because God is so insecure that He needs our praise to edify Him, nor is it because He is so narcissistic that He expects us to feed His ego.

We should praise Him because when we do, it establishes in us His majesty and reminds us of His Glory. It puts us in the position of a loving servant before a king. Praising God reminds us of our humanity and His magnificence and strengthens our relationship with Him.